How to learn Sanskrit grammar?
The Sanskrit language has scripts or alphabets for writing, and grammatical rules for sentence formation, just like any other language (English for example). In this chapter, we will get an overview of this. The details with their grammatical rules will be covered in subsequent chapters.
Learning Sanskrit is proved to be very beneficial as its daily use provides a good brain exercise and helps in an increasing count in the grey cells which improves brain power and also brings clarity in pronunciation.
Few basic sentences of Sanskrit through grammar rules.
Alphabets & Their Classification:
In the Sanskrit language, Devanagari Script is the most used script for writing. Most of the Sanskrit literature is in this script. Following is the list of the alphabets in their correct order.
All these alphabets are classified into two major groups i.e.,
Vowels or स्वरवर्ण (svaravarNa):
Alphabets starting from अ (a) till औ (au) are the vowels. These are further classified into ह्रस्व (hrasva) and दीर्घ (diirgha). The दीर्घ (diirgha) are pronounced double the length (or time) of ह्रस्व (hrasva).
Consonants or व्यञ्जनवर्ण (vyaJNjanavarNa):
Alphabets starting from क (k) till ज्ञ (dny) are the consonants. Some of the consonants are further classified into different groups called वर्ग (varga). The following table has this classification. Some of the grammatical rules for Euphonic Combination or सन्धि (sandhi) and Compound Words or समास (samaasa) are based on these वर्ग (varga).
Sentence Formation Overview:
In Sanskrit just like any other language (English for example) a sentence is made of different elements. The elements are “Subject”, “Object”, and “Verb”. A sentence may or may not have an Object in it.
- Subject is called -> कर्ता / kartaa
- Object is called -> कर्म / karma
- Verb is called -> क्रिया / kriyaa
- Transitive Verb is called -> सकर्मक / sakarmaka
- Intransitive Verb is called -> अकर्मक / akarmaka
So, in the above statements:
Words & Their Classification:
In any language, a sentence is made up of multiple words composed in a well-defined structure giving a sensible meaning to the sentence. These words can be categorised into three different types viz.,
- Noun
- Verb
- Indeclinable
Besides the above classifications nouns and verbs can also be part of following categories with minor derivations like addition of ‘ility’, ‘ily’, ‘tion’, ‘ing’ etc., as well as based on their usage and grammatical rules:
Pronoun
Adjective
Adverb
In Sanskrit also words are classified into similar categories. Following is a representation of the important classifications. We can see the classification is almost the same as any other language.
Nouns (शब्द / shabda):
The noun is the word that represents someone or something in a sentence. Noun normally refers to person, place, thing, state or quality etc. A noun is the only word that can be used as the subject or object for a verb.
The noun in Sanskrit is called शब्द (shabda) or noun-root. It is also called कर्तृपद (kartRRipada). Noun can be classified into सुवन्तपद (suvantapada) and तद्धितपद (taddhitapada).
Each noun has a different derivation based on the “number” and “case”. Unlike other languages, in Sanskrit, the noun has its different forms built into itself. The “noun base” is called शब्द (shabda) and the “derived noun forms” are called शब्दरुप (shabdarupa). So, in the previous statement बालक is the “base” (शब्द / shabda) of noun “BOY” and बालकः is one of the derived noun forms (शब्दरुप / shabdarupa).
Examples of noun form (शब्दरुप / shabdarupa):
- The boy -> बालकः / baalakaH
- Many boys -> बालकाः / baalakaaH
- To the boy -> बालकम् / baalakam
- To the boys -> बालकान् / baalakaan
- The girl -> बाला / baalaa
- Many girls -> बालाः / baalaaH
- To the girl -> बालाम् / baalaam
- To the girls -> बालाः / baalaaH
Pronouns (सर्वनाम पद / sarvanaama pada):
Words like he, she, this, that, these etc., are called pronouns. Pronouns in Sanskrit are called सर्वनाम पद (sarvanaama pada). The rules for pronouns are exactly the same as the nouns (शब्द / shabda).
Verb (धातु / dhaatu):
Verb normally refers to action, state, existence or occurrence etc. Verb in Sanskrit is called धातु (dhaatu) or verb root. It is also known as क्रियापद (kriyaapada). It can be classified into तिङतपद (tiN^atapada) and कृदन्तपद (kRRidantapada).
Finally,
To master any language, the study of its grammar is considered to be very important. Rather we can say, grammar acts as the backbone of any language. Similarly, if you study and master the grammar of Sanskrit, you can easily read any Sanskrit text and Shlokas. So here in all these tutorials, an attempt is made to explain all basic grammar rules of Sanskrit. This will surely help you to read, understand and also write in Sanskrit easily.
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